Top 20 catchers, 1st basemen and 2nd basemen are in the books. What a strange, glorious trip it’s been! Though not really. Today, the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball get to shine. Hmm… Actually, most of these won’t shine. They’re cloudy with a chance of crapballs. To be a bit more specific, the top ten shortstops were about equal with the 2nd basemen through the top 10, then they actually go a bit deeper than the 2nd basemen. Yes, shortstops are deeper. Barely. Mike Aviles was 18th overall for 2nd basemen, here he doesn’t even make the list coming in 22nd. Either way, it’s ugly. Okay, enough of the hubbub on the tomfoolery. To recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:

1. Ian Desmond – My preseason projections aren’t that far off for Desmond. Few runs here, a little average there. I say this to illustrate how pee poor shortstops are. Desmond was ranked 6th in the preseason and, with around the same level season, came in a tie for first. Yes, a tie. More on that below. Preseason Rank #6, 2013 Projections: 68/20/77/.264/18, Final Numbers: 77/20/80/.280/21

1B. Jean Segura – For the first time that I can remember we have a dead heat in the top of the rankings for a position! Yes, that’s as exciting as end of the season rankings get. Sue me for the 1/127th of a penny I made when you clicked on the page. I loved Segura in the preseason and told you to draft him everywhere. If you didn’t, you weren’t paying attention. Segura would’ve finished clearly in first too if Rudy didn’t use some of his black magic to make sure he didn’t reach 75 runs. Is it okay to say black magic? Or should it be African-American magic? Preseason Rank #16, 2013 Projections: 75/5/50/.282/32, Final Numbers: 74/12/49/.294/44

3. Elvis Andrus – Really surprised he only hit four homers and not my projected five. Kidding. I nailed this one, and he would be ranked seventh if the shortstops could’ve found four more top names to fill themselves out. I’m trying to make all of these recaps about this year and not next, but Andrus will only be twenty-five next year and could be ready to steal 45+ bases. How he hasn’t scored 100 runs once in his career is slightly baffling. Not baffling enough to spend another whole sentence on. Doh! Preseason Rank #7, 2013 Projections: 91/5/60/.285/35, Final Numbers: 91/4/67/.271/42

4. Troy Tulowitzki – I think this is an organizational edict –> Tulo can’t stay healthy, so they asked him to stop stealing. He wasn’t unsuccessful a handful of times. He had one steal in one attempt. I wouldn’t be surprised if that one steal was a botched hit and run too. Oh, and I have no idea what an edict is. Fooled you into thinking I was smart! Preseason Rank #1, 2013 Projections: 83/25/98/.288/7, Final Numbers: 72/25/82/.312/1

5. Hanley Ramirez – Somehow he hit .345 this year. Well, I know how. He was lucky. He had a .363 BABIP, which would’ve been top ten for all of baseball. He also managed a homer in just about every four games. The explanation of that was the 21.1% HR/FB. So he was hitting line drives for hits and every time he hit a fly ball it left the park. Hanley was pretty much the luckiest man to play baseball since Lou Gehrig retired. The sad thing for shortstops, because we always have to bring it back to shortstops and how pathetic they are, he only played a half a year and ranked in the top five. No one with less than 60 RBIs should be top five for anything. Preseason Rank #15, 2013 Projections: 69/17/79/.253/14, Final Numbers: 62/20/57/.345/10

7. J.J. Hardy – I said this a lot in the 2nd basemen recap and mentioned it again in Desmond’s blurb, but to belabor the point. Hardy’s projections aren’t 15 ranking spots off. Maybe 5 spots. So if you jumped out of a DeLorean in March and told me Hardy would’ve had the season he had, I’d say, “Okay, so I’ll rank him 17th instead, and this is the info you bring me from the future? Did they outlaw lotteries? The stock market? Anything I can actually make money on?” Preseason Rank #22, 2013 Projections: 68/20/79/.244, Final Numbers: 66/25/76/.263/2

9. Alexei Ramirez – We talked about the dearth of RBIs in the 2nd basemen recap. Today, it’s runs. There were only 9 guys who scored 100 runs this year. 11 guys in 2012. 30 (!) guys in 2007. 35 guys in 2001, ending with your mom’s lover, Corey Koskie. Alexei had 572 ABs in the three hole or higher this year and stole thirty bases and hit .284, and he got 68 runs?! White Sux, I know. But c’mon. Preseason Rank #24, 2013 Projections: 66/12/70/.259/12, Final Numbers: 68/6/48/.284/30

11. Andrelton Simmons – Not a bad year for him, considering he popped out of Sigourney Weaver’s belly in March. Preseason Rank #19, 2013 Projections: 56/5/67/.272/15, Final Numbers: 76/17/59/.248/6

12. Everth Cabrera – EverCab could have the key to translate stats for all PEDs users. He should’ve hit one homer and instead hit four. So, Barry Bonds hit 18 homers in 2001, which is less than Domonic Brown hit pre-All-Star break. Unless Brown was also found to be doing PEDs then Brown hit 6 homers. Now, Chris Davis hit 13 homers this year which beat Brady Anderson’s Orioles record of 12.8 homers. See, how easy it is to make sense of PEDs-tainted records? Preseason Rank #17, 2013 Projections: 45/1/22/.240/35, Final Numbers: 54/4/31/.283/37

13. Asdrubal Cabrera – Had a pretty brutal year that proved further that his ‘breakout’ in 2011 with 25 homers, wasn’t a breakout season as much as a ‘get out of here, you liar’ season. Granted, a ‘get out of here, you liar’ season doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same. He also dealt with some bad luck that lowered his average, but this is a team sport and the Indians did well–Oh, who cares, Asdrubal sucked. Preseason Rank #10, 2013 Projections: 77/17/86/.272/14, Final Numbers: 66/14/64/.242/9

14. Jose Reyes – When he had 4 homers and 8 steals at the All-Star break, I tried to get people to trade him away. After the ASB, 6 homers and 7 steals. Yay. Again with less emotion: yay. Omar Infante pfft’s at that 2nd half. Preseason Rank #2, 2013 Projections: 110/12/60/.285/40, Final Numbers: 58/10/37/.296/15

15. Stephen Drew – This was his healthiest year since 2010, which allows us to see the upper reaches of his talent — 13 homers and a .250 average. Martin Prado called and said, “I pity you, fool.” Preseason Rank #14, 2013 Projections: 42/15/55/.262/2, Final Numbers: 57/13/67/.253/6

16. Erick Aybar – I had high hopes for the Angels offense coming into this year, especially Aybar as its main benefactor. The good news is I didn’t spend one-point-seven trillion to have my hopes crushed like Arte Moreno. Preseason Rank #12, 2013 Projections: 92/9/62/.292/24, Final Numbers: 68/6/54/.271/12

17. Zack Cozart – He wasn’t Billy Hamilton in the minors, but he did swipe 30 bags one year. Now Cozart is looking as fleet of foot as Pedro Alvarez. Dusty Baker or his trusty toothpick must’ve put the kibosh on Cozart’s running game. Phone rings. “Hello, this is Cozart’s running game, who is this? Mark Prior’s arm? You wanna have a word with me?” Preseason Rank #18, 2013 Projections: 72/17/81/.255/10, Final Numbers: 74/12/63/.254

19. Jimmy Rollins – And a guy that turned 50 years old this year ranked in the top 20 too. Preseason Rank #5, 2013 Projections: 88/19/61/.248/24, Final Numbers: 65/6/39/.252/22

20. Yunel Escobar – I’ve never embraced position scarcity, and the lack of shortstops doesn’t have me changing that. I am embracing offense scarcity. I want you to write on the blackboard, “All hitters are scarce and pitchers are abundant and I will not waste chalk.” Preseason Rank #26, 2013 Projections: 78/8/57/.261/5, Final Numbers: 61/9/56/.256/4

Wow that was a show put on by the Dodgers last night. Just shows what happens when all your main guys are locked in. Boy that Puig looks good though, dont think he’ll necessarily be overrated come draft day. And Hanley too, tbh hes looked like the old Hanley all year when in the lineup, I could see a return to top 5 player next season.

As for the A’s -Tigers game the other night, boy that was a pitching matchup for the ages. Verlander and Gray were absolutely dominant, throwing smoke along with those utterly ridiculous hammer hooks (best curves in the game along with Waino?). OaktownSteve you mustve loved it, had to be a walk-off win in typical A’s fashion too. Veey interested to see where Grey ranks Gray next year!

Hanley’s OPS in the playoffs so far this year: 1.802. Yes, small sample size, etc. But the guy is a monster and seems to be back to caring about playing again, which is critical for him. If he stays healthy, he’ll easily put up first round numbers next year, IMO. He’ll probably be getting drafted in the 2nd round, though. It’s the same ole Tulo gambit. But I kinda think I’m going to be owning him in a few leagues next year.

@RandomItalicizedVoice: Agreed. he basically was that guy this year, his OPS was (scrathes head, bites nails, cracks fingers) holy crap…over .1000 . In half a year. Doesnt run as much anymore but his numbers can still be ridiculous.

Segura really returned to SAGNOF in the second half — only had one HR, and his OPS fell to .583– which makes sense because only 3 of his 12 HR were not Just Enoughs.

More importantly, I watched the Top Chef premiere. I agree that it looks like it’ll be a good season, at least cooking-wise. Annoyed that they seem to have permanently adopted that dizzying spin pan that they use in the judges’ table. So…who you got?

Yeah, Segura’s not a huge power threat… I know, I hate that swish pan… Also, they seem like they have to add something every year, like the chefs listening to the judges, but I like that gambit… I’m taking Carlos… Who you got?

@Grey: I agree with you, as well as Magoo’s comment below. Carlos clearly has a good story and already having a Michelin star and a successful restaurant can’t hurt. Also, unlike the winner, he didn’t just replace the meat in some dish from the cuisine of his roots.

Hard to deduce who will win from one episode, but since you are already betting on Carlos and Shirley, I’m going to go with Carlos and Aaron. I was going to go with Shirley as well but agreement is boring.

I was astounded how many of the contestants were like “I’ve never cooked with [alligator/frog/turtle].” Did they not know they were competing on Top Chef in New Orleans? Assuming they weren’t all kidnapped and flown to NOLA, WTF else would you do to prepare for Top Chef in Louisiana? They chided Aaron for not thinking about how he could prepare fresh pasta for 100+ guests in the “swamp” (which appears to simply mean, “outside”), but no one was criticized for not thinking to learn a little about cooking the proteins popular in the region in which the show was set?!! That’s like someone competing in Seattle having not ever cooked fish. So, I think that everyone who said that they hadn’t used those proteins before should have just been axed on the spot.

I agree about the new thing where the contestants get to watch the deliberations- hopefully the contestants paying attention to the deliberations won’t reduce the amount of spats that seem to occur while waiting to find out who’s getting the boot.

God no, we can’t reduce spats — that rule number one for reality TV… Hopefully, this adds more spats because people are hearing the cold truth and have a moment to blame other people, this will play more when there’s teams… Aaron had a ,lot to say, so that’s a good sign for him, and they have a hometown rivalry… Now we have a Razzball rivalry, I will be gone for two weeks in November due to my wedding, so can’t have spoilers…. I Yelped Carlos’s Michelin-starred place and the menu looks interesting and yummy but not expensive, I wonder if you need 3-stars to charge exuberant prices… Speaking of which, there’s a great documentary on Netflix about Michelin-starred places, you should check it out if you have streaming…

@royce!: Carlos is probably the most accomplished chef on the show, and the only one with a Michelin star to his name. One of the early favorites. Sara seems to be a risk-taker, with the skill to pull that approach off. Carrie’s my dark horse. She doesn’t have the resume of most of the others, and her confidence seems a bit shaky, but there’s something about her. Really inventive first dish.

Least likely to be the chef left standing? The Australian chick. Wearing daisy dukes and sandals into the kitchen? Smells like a ratings ploy. I’m not complaining though.

@royce!: I meant that she was probably encouraged to show a little more skin than she normally would. Hard to believe that a serious chef would enter the kitchen like that, especially in a serious competition…

@Grey: Two weeks to get married?!! you must’ve written some epic vows…Seriously though, good luck on everything. The time leading up to the wedding is one of the hardest parts about being married and it doesn’t even occur during the marriage. Where are you honeymooning, if you don’t mind me asking?

It is Three Stars, yeah… It’s solid…Not earth shattering… Undefeated was amazing, but nothing to do with food… We’re going to Hawaii… We were talking about Thailand and other parts unknown, but we really didn’t want to travel for a full day and just wanted to lay on the beach somewhere… Mother Cougar is handling all the wedding stuff so it’s been a breeze so far…I don’t have a huge say in things, but I don’t really care…

@Grey: Cool, I’ll check it out, but it might be a while, as I need to watch Breaking Bad…Good call on Hawaii- you all don’t have kids so you should be able to find another time to take more adventurous trips.

Sounds like you have a good attitude about the wedding. My mother in law had a huge influence on our wedding, which ultimately makes sense because she paid for it, but we had to battle to prevent her from cheesing it up. For example, she wanted a wedding band and we were against it and instead wanted to pay a friend from Seattle to fly out to DJ (even though he had never DJ’d before). She gave in and he killed it, and actually has DJ’d a few wedding since. The best way to think about it is that it’s a party for your families, not really for you.

Yeah, I’m pretty laid back with all of it… She wanted to do a few cheesy things — like high heel-shaped cupcakes — and I was like those are stupid and I think they got pushed away, but even if they’re there, I don’t really care, whatever… The band and food we were able to choose, and that’s all I really cared about, so I’m fine, I think…

@Grey: Nah, Honolulu is on Oahu. I’m not as familiar with that area. We stayed on Maui for our honeymoon three years ago. Just did the day trip to Oahu to visit Pearl Harbor. There’s a lot to do in Honolulu though. Have fun!

But really, Starlin Castro’s season definitely bears mention here. He was the Razzball #32 overall. Not a knock on Grey’s ranking. A lot of folks had him as a third rounder. But he ends up the 23 ranked shortstop even on this horrendous list just ahead of Pedro Pokemon. And Castro played in 161 games. He scored 59 runs and drove in 44 in 705 PAs? Dropped from 25 steals to 9? Holy cow that’s awful.

He was completely dreadful….It was one of those seasons that was so bad, that he could be out of a job if his March/April isn’t good this year… Your season has to be really bad to go from an All-Star to out of a job in under 14 months… The counting stats I don’t hold against him, but zip on everything else and he seems like he doesn’t want to be there… Not a great combo…

Tulo and Hanley missed a bunch of games and still finished in the top 5. Lowrie at #6 with 15 homers and 1 steal. Zobrist was a fantasy bust and still finished at #8. These MI posts are making me depressed.

As I mentioned last week though, Desmond is one of four players in all of baseball who has gone 20/20 or better in each of the past two years (Trout, McCutchen, and CarGo are the others). He looks like a solid third rounder next year.

So I’m trying to gauge my keepers for next year. Our league allows for offseason trading so I have some options to explore.

I dealt away quite a few picks for next yers draft. my current keepers are Votto, Longo, Stanton, Machado and Strasburg. So i traded away picks and now do not pick until the 12th round…yuck.

So i was looking to deal Longo for some picks. I got an offer to move Longo for Verlander but I don;t like it that much. Assuming i move longo for picks who would you keep in his place…
Grienke, Hamels, Lee, or Heyward

I might be high on smurf mushrooms but I think Simmons could be a borderline top-5 SS next year.

The good contact rate but crappy BA suggests to me it’s a matter of batting approach, which is not uncommon among young hitters, and luck. In any event, an 18.5 LD% shouldn’t equate to a sub-.250 BABIP. The popup rate is high but last yr with a similar popup rate and lower LD%, his BABIP was above .300, so it’s not to blame.

The 17 HRs is quite impressive (his HR/FB% was actually below average). It would be nice if he could steal more bases but that’s wishful thinking.

So if he hits .285 with 20 homers and 80 runs 70 RBI and 10 SBs. That ain’t too shabby given the dearth in offense.

Those numbers would easily be top five, if he can get there and Fredi rigthfully puts him at the top of the lineup and not 7th or 8th, then I could see it for reasons you mention… Worst case scenario, the power looks for real…

The tigers actually limped home to the al central that title in the last week of the season and I’m not suprised they took that form into the postseason.

That A’s roster (platoony tune jigsaw offense, excellent pitching) seems pretty well equipped for the post season. Good luck to them. Now my indians are out I’ll be rooting for them and their GM. billy beane deserves a world series win. He’s a Shoestring genius.

BTW, thanks for the tips to do the web cast. I was nervous until I took some of the good cough medicine and mixed a little tequila in my tea. You could still hear me coughing in the background, but baby’s mama called that my commitment to the job

I like being aggressive with Kershaw…def could backfire…but I like taking the fight to them and trying to win now…different story if Nolasco hadn’t given up 17ER in his last 13IP…not to mention Greinke is a pretty decent bullet left in the tank…

How does the schedule work out for them if they clinch tonight with Pitty and Saint Lou going to game 5? When would the next series start? Basically seems like they are sacrificing a chance for Kershaw to go games 1-4-7 in an NLCS. I can kind of understand the thinking in a way though. A Kershaw-Garcia match up you almost say to yourself it’s a lock and if you can lock a ticket to the next round and not leave anything to chance, you’re for sure tempted to do it.

I had my volunteer day at my kids school for lunch. Every Monday. Couldn’t get out of it. Had to make it 1 without hearing a score and then watched on DVR. Getting from East Oakland to West and back without getting any news I felt like Odysseus trying to get home. Scylla, Charybdis, Sirens and more. I lashed myself to the mast of my Hyundai.

Let’s close it out tomorrow and not bring Scherzer back into the picture.

@SteveNZ: He’s getting squeezed. I’m amazed that even though pitch trax shows so many of balls have been on the edge of the plate, none of the guys on TBS are mentioning it. Am I missing something? Two of the four balls to Middlebrooks should have been strikes, at least.

If the cougar is into adventure on the honeymoon, the mysticism/danger involved with this haunted hidden hawaiian waterfall can only be rivaled by the Brady Bunch excursion to the island. I was there before the famed rock avalanche along with some locals as a teenager….

@Grey: i must’ve got lucky with him during the time he was on my 3 or 4 rosters in holds leagues. I do know for a fact I didn’t pick him up until I took those teams over, so it would’ve been shortly after the start of august.